This is Love
by valagator
Summary: When Kai and Lloyd go back to a day Kai can't remember, Lloyd starts acting a little weird. Kai doesn't get it, until he starts listening to his past self talk. Now all he wants is to forget again. (request)


A/N: Hey guys! This was requested by NerdyJD. (I know this isn't EXACTLY what you wanted, but it just felt right to me) I wanted to avoid the time traveling cleshe's with this, story, but tell me if I utterly fail XD. ANYWAY, ON WITH THE STORY!

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"Ugh! Kai! I'm part of the team too! Why do you still treat me like a little kid?" The young green ninja asks after the older red ninja takes the book he was reading.

"If you want me to stop treating you like a kid, why don't you stop acting like one?" Kai asks, revealing the comic book that was hidden among the pages of an old leather bound book. Lloyd bites his lip and looks down, knowing that he's lost.

Kai sighs, and runs his hand through his spiked chocolate locks.

I laugh quietly from my perch on one of the mast beams, along with my green eyed best friend... yeah. Friend. That's all we are... yup. Anyway, older Lloyd and I try to stifle the laughs escaping our lips. Spilling that time traveler's tea on ourselves may have hurt, but it was worth it to see the petty fight unfolding in front of us.

"I can't believe I used to be like that." Lloyd whispers in my ear, his hot breath giving me goosebumps.

"Neither can I... I can't even remember this..." I say, ignoring the fluttering in my stomach I've gotten from being so close to him. I turn to face my Green Bean, his white gold hair glistening in the summer sun. We're so close, I can see a light spatter of freckles on his nose and on the higher part of his cheeks, and the flecks of gold in his startling emeralds. I have to rip myself from his gaze, and turn back to the scene in front of me.

"Lloyd, what am I going to do with you?" Past me asks young Lloyd, who is still staring shamefully at the deck, his oversized ninja suit hanging off of him. Even as a kid, he was a cutie. A troublemaker, but still a cutie.

"I-I'm sorry..." Young Lloyd says, looking at past me. Past me sighs again, but now has a smile on his face. He ruffles the younger blonde's hair.

"It's okay, Lloyd. You should stop trying to grow up so fast. Treasure your childhood." Past me says. Young Lloyd nods, and walks below deck, leaving past me on the deck. "Yeah... don't grow up too fast..." Past me whispers, a smirk on his face.

"Kai... Do you want to leave?" Lloyd asks, suddenly. I face him again.

"No... why?" I ask. He looks... scared. I put my hand on his arm. "What's up?" He looks away.

"N-Nothing..." He says. I shrug. If he doesn't want to tell me... then he doesn't want to tell me. I turn my attention back to past me, who is now looking over to the sea, forearms resting on the wooden rail and something in his hand... I can't really tell what it is.

"What's wrong with me?" He says. A normal person wouldn't have been able to hear him from how far away Lloyd and I are, but we're trained to have acute hearing. What did I mean...

"Why did I have to be like this?" Past me asks, gripping whatever he is holding tighter. I look over at Lloyd, but he just looks even more upset. I put my hand on top of his, and he looks me in the eye.

"What's wrong?" I ask him.

"You'll see." He whispers. Vague. I turn back to past me, seeing the anger in my features, and throwing the object into the water, which turns out to be the old book.

Past me flops onto the deck, and leans his back against the railing of the bounty. The fresh sea breeze blows, whipping his hair around.

"I just wish... you were older..." Past me says. What does he mean... "Heh. Look at me, talking to myself... maybe I really am crazy." Past me laughs. Lloyd shifts next to me, his hand now gripping mine.

"Well, I may as well get it all out." Past me sighs. "You had to fall for someone eight years younger, and the same gender? Are you a child molester, Kai?" Oh god. "Why didn't I save the fang blade instead of him? Then I wouldn't be feeling this way..."

Lloyd is holding my hand hard now.

"But..." Past me grunts in frustration, banging his fist on the deck. "I couldn't resist you, could I? A kid... just like me." Past me says, sullenly.

I turn to my Lloyd, his cheeks wet with tears that he would probably never admit were there. But... why are they there?

I turn his face gently with my pointer finger, so that it's facing me. I brush my thumb lightly under his eye, erasing the tear tracks. He closes his lids, and leans deftly into my hand, which is cupping his pale cheek.

"What's wrong?" I ask him, softly. His eyes snap open, and he brings his head away.

"What's not wrong?" He whisper shouts at me. He points to the door, the one that leads below decks, and there he is, younger Lloyd looking shell-shocked as he listens to past-me's rant. The smile melts off my face. He knew... he knew all this time...

"You knew... how could you stand to be around me?" I ask him. The embarrassed anger disappears from his face, and he takes my hand in his.

"Kai, it scared me to think that someone as old as you, or like you, could be attracted to a messed up kid like me. When I was listening to you confess, I wasn't mad. Just confused. I thought that, if what I was doing was making you like me, then I had to do it more. That's why I kept acting immature, and putting myself in bad situations, trying to look tough for you." He takes a small breath.

"Lloyd... What I felt was... and still is, wrong. I should be straight, I should be hooking up with random fans, like the magazines say... but I can't. I can't bring myself to do it. Because when I look at all those girls..." I stare him directly in the eye, my past self's speech fading into white noise as I sit on the mast, with the boy who holds my heart in his palm. "All I see are people who think they love me because of my status or my power; and then I think of you, who could never love me as more than a brother." I can feel hot tears rolling down my cheeks.

"Kai, I do love you, as more than a brother." He says to me, a small smile on his lips.

"W-what?" I ask in disbelief.

"You heard me." He says before leaning forward and pressing his warm lips to mine. My eyes flutter closed, and my arms embrace his shuddering body. He pulls his mouth from mine, and I rest my forehead on his.

His icy blonde locks tickle my face.

"I love you." I say, at full volume, forgetting where we are.

"Who's there?" Past me calls out, standing up, with a blush on his cheeks, and walking around.

"Good job." Lloyd says, trying desperately to keep his laughter from reaching my past self's ears.

"I-I know spinjitzu!" Past me calls out- not so confidently.

"Airjitzu?" I say to my Lloyd. He nods, before glancing back at the stairway, where his past self was standing just minutes ago, digesting new information. He smiles and faces me once again.

"Yeah. Let's go pick up some traveler's tea. It's about time we got home." He says, taking my hand and spinning up. We are soon flying away in a joint tornado through the bright sky, with past Kai yelling after us.

"This is love." I say to him as we land.

"This is love." He repeats back, and our lips join once again.


End file.
